To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to his answer of 12 November 2007, Official Report, column 64W, on packaging, when he plans to publish his Department's decision on private prosecutions in relation to copycat packaging as part of his Department's implementation of the unfair commercial practices directive. (176040)

I intend to publish Government's Response to the May 2007 consultation on draft Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations (CPRs) implementing the unfair commercial practices directive shortly. This will say that the Government do not propose to allow businesses to enforce the regulations, but this position will be kept under review and will be formally reviewed three years after the regulations come into force.

The Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards Services will have a duty to enforce the regulations. The Government believe that these enforcement arrangements suffice to adequately enforce the CPRs, including in relation to misleading copycat packaging design. OFT and trading standards services will have to act in a manner consistent with their duty to enforce the regulations. Indeed the Gowers Review of Intellectual Property notes that in this context the Local Authority Coordinators of Regulatory Services have said that once the UCPD is in place they will act on behalf of consumers by pursuing businesses who act improperly.